You are walking along a familiar beach front admiring the view when your best friend Eva starts screeching your name from behind you.

As you turn around to look for her you find yourself in a black room in front of a wooden red door with a shimmer of light beaming from the bottom. Behind the door Eva is screaming in fear yelling out.

"Bro I need you where are you I can't find you!"

"This thing is attacking me, has pushed me out and has taken control"

"It told me to jump bro I'm so scared!"

With the sound of water splashing your body jumps like your spirit self has re-entered our body with a jolt. You realize it was all just a dream but the voice and the words that had been said are still clear as day when you recollect what had just happened.

In that instance you reach for your phone and hit speed dial to check if your friend is ok.

When the call is answered you straight away say "Bro are you all good?" but Bina is on the other end crying saying "Bro she jumped, get here we're in ward…"

You arrive to see 20 of your friends there to offer support, due to visitor restrictions one by one they walk in cry asking her "why", "what could I have done", "how are you feeling", "what will make it better" little did they know how numb she had become and with each question I watched Eva become more and more withdrawn from the outside world and less and less responsive to the love surrounding her. By the time the tenth person had walked out she had become fed up with the negative response sending her into a downward spiral stop just steered out the window with a blank look in her eyes.

So as it neared my turn I decided to wait to be the last to walk in. I came up with a plan, if you walk in depressed then depressed she'll be, this cheeky darky would walk in and put a smile on her face.

Can you guess what was then said?

"Were you the catch of the day bro! Biggest fish that Samoan's ever seen!!!!"

And with a quick turn of her head a smile appeared and she bellowed with laughter and said "I love you bro that's just what I needed!"

The thing is suffering from any form of mental illness, even makatu, it becomes a real life game of constantly trying to live life let alone survive through the darkness. So taking from this and what has happened to those around me I would create a game in which the players are essentially playing against themselves.

Each day they must find some form of happiness, whether it's in friends or family, movies, pictures, poems, books, music. Each day they must post that glimpse of happiness for the day as that is the one thing they struggle to see. Even if they didn't find any they could use something they learnt that day as a reminder and life lesson. Turn the frame of mind of failure into a continuous personal growth to show them what true strength they possess in order to get into the game play each day.

They are not weak, you will find they are the strongest as they have overcome more hurdles and challenges then many in life.

Within parts of the game the player could be given a picture in which they can find their own underlying meaning like a "caption this" style game and then once they have submitted their response they will be able to view what others think they can see through it.

In others it would be a "iSpy" styled game in which the player can find the clues given with the "dream", once the player has found all their clues they could be given a multi choice answered questions asking for the next course of action based on what they have seen and heard from the problem person whom appeared or had some form of indication towards in their "dream".

Based on the answers given the players answers will determine the outcome and frame of mind of the person they are trying to help.

The aim is to help as many people as possible gaining happiness points, if they can't then they lose a happiness point. If the player successfully helps a person then they will need to make sure they are checking on the health and mood of them in as they are added to the players whanau and their happiness point gets added to the players, if in the case that persons health and mood decline then that's when they lose the person and life point, once they are at a point in which they can not overcome their fears.

It's also about appropriate reactions, something's can be funny to a certain point before they turn offensive.

It's a bit like if you know someone has high anxiety issues and has been diagnosed with depression and they start acting in a manner unlike themselves how do you respond?

Do you know if they are on medication? Is this a factor? Are they having a bad day? Do you know their triggers? Do you tell them they are crazy and send them home? Do you call the psychiatric team in for an assessment? Do you ring their family and ask for advice as to your approach? If the medical way isn't working do you find alternative methods?

With each problem comes solutions.. it's finding the right ones for the correct person that is the struggle.

Essentially this game aims to build the player their own "happiness portfolio" that they can access when they start to feel down at the same time as giving them useful tools to use in life experiences.

<<<<<***** Please note the story used in this is actually something that has happened so please don't think its racist or rude or mean as portrays the friendship between me and my best mate *****>>>>>

image sourced from:

http://www.livemoreawesome.com/awesome-august-photo-a-day-challenge-2015/